Michael Miltenberger

What is being proposed and worked on by the refocusing and the strategic initiatives committees will be, in my opinion, the single biggest piece of restructuring we’re going to do as an Assembly in terms of government and how we deliver services.

Clearly, with the Members and the Chairs coming on board as fully participating members, they’ll have access to all that information. We intend to fully brief committees as a matter of course as we proceed with the work that’s necessary as we move down the implementation path. There’s work we’re doing right now. While we have timelines, we have a lot...

I would ask your indulgence, Mr. Chairman, and defer to the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the presentation that we provided to committee, we pointed out that the Gardner Group, which is a world leader in IT research and analytics, has determined that governments on average spend about 5 per cent of their overall budget on IMIS and IT. The GNWT, based on our budget, is below that, at between 4 and 4.4 per cent.

First let me comment that the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Members of Cabinet — the Premier on down — are all fully supportive of this approach and the investments we are making. I know that Public Works and Services has done work to do the monitoring the Member speaks of on some of the larger schools across the North.

I picked up a copy of a document when I went to the wood pellet fair that was held here a couple weeks ago. Clearly, we are going to have to develop all those types of support services and expertise in our own government and across the North in the communities as...

To the best of my knowledge, yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, we’ll get that work done as quickly as we can. Considering the fact that we’re currently before committee, we’ll endeavour to have that done by tomorrow.

The Member is correct that there is an economic opportunity here as we look at moving to alternative energies. The whole support, installation and monitoring was raised in the House last week — the need, for example, for simple things like having qualified local people to be able to do inspections of pellet stoves and wood fired woodstoves.

Yes, there is an interest, as we move forward and start planning the value-added to this whole operation, in building the economy and being able to sustain, implement and repair and upgrade this whole type of new industry we’re going to be creating in the...

Mr. Chairman, I will once again defer to the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Chairman, once again, the assessment was done. The staff in the Perry Building are some of the folks that are going to be relocated, because the condition of the building made it beyond use. There’s a balance that we try to look at as we move forward in communities so that we respect some of the concerns raised by the Member. In this case the approach determined as the best was to redo the building.

The intent, clearly, is to put as much money as possible toward program delivery at the community level. We know the money we have currently as a government is insufficient. As we look at things like reductions and revenue options, we’re also looking at how we’re structured. Are we structured to best deliver the programs that are needed? If we’re more efficient and effective in terms of administration, would there be more money that could then go to the program delivery area? That’s the approach we’re taking.

The money that’s in the system will stay in the system, but we’ll try to put it as...